Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 October 24

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[edit] October 24

[edit] "Data Point" ?

Hey

I recently got given an assignment for networking. For this assignment I have to design cabling (backbone and horizontal) and draw a cabling diagram, select routers switches etc and I also have to do addressing.

It uses the term data point:

"Classrooms 003 to 033 have 4 data points except for the 4 computer rooms which need 20 data points" "Graphics room 033 needs 10 computer connections" "For the Computer Workstations 10 data points are needed"

I was just wondering what exactly it means by data points? Like what they are, what they do etc

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers Ben —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.228.62 (talk) 01:58, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

This seems odd, but the data points seem just to represent a Ethernet drop. So, the reason that computer labs would require more data points would be that each computer requires a network connection. Freedomlinux 03:37, 24 October 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Freedomlinux (talk • contribs) 03:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
This sounds good, it's a normal kind of specification. The data point, possible also could be called a data outlet, is likely to be an RJ 45 socket. You would then run a drop ethernet cord from the socket to your PC(s) ethernet socket. Of course you can vary this in your design! But this is most common type. Whether its catogory 5 or 5e or 6 will be part of your design too. Graeme Bartlett 01:28, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Picasa for Linux isn't symlink-aware

I recently downloaded and installed Picasa for Linux. However, when I told it to find every image file in my filesystem, it turns out it isn't symlink-aware. I have a separate hard disk for my digital photographs, and I keep a symlink to its mountpoint from my home directory for convenience. So this means that Picasa found all my digital photographs twice. Is there any way to fix this? JIP | Talk 05:27, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Not really a solution but why not directly mount the drive in ~/? That's what I'm doing right now. --antilivedT | C | G 05:57, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] computer line pics thingys

hi,

what are the things, that are made from things like this: | _ - / \ etc, and are made into intricate pics that are found on websites like Bebo (the most basic eg is this (.Y.) for breasts, but there are allsorts like guitars, card, houses etc) also where can many be forund?

thanks, --90.242.188.10 10:09, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

ASCII art. Algebraist 10:40, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
see also emoticon. --140.247.43.151 16:49, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Ram = No Video?!

I was trying to help out my buddy who has a VERY out of date computer (only 128 megs of RAM, ouch!) and I took a stick of 256megs to drop in his second RAM slot. Well, after booting the system back up there's no video. He's got onboard video (ugh). Any ideas or suggestions?

12.155.80.115 12:25, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Try taking out the 128 meg strip and using just the 256meg strip. SteveBaker 14:58, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

It's possible that the motherboard can't support either the 256M module or 384M combined. The motherboard book and website would say if it could. Also, try updating the firmware on the motherboard (again check the website), although it can be a pain sometimes to find the maker of an old motherboard.
One more thing. Does the video not work, or everything not work? Does it make all the normal sounds of booting up into the OS (usually lots of hard drive noises)? Or does it beep a lot (POST code)? If it beeps, then it's likely something like I said above. --Bennybp 15:16, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Yep - that's mostly the reason I suggested using just the 256Mb strip - but it might also be some kind of incompatibility between the two different kinds of RAM or that there is a fault in the 256Mb strip. It's always a good idea to try to simplify the problem when diagnosing via email/talk pages. SteveBaker 15:24, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
to answer your questions- as far as I can tell everything boots up fine, we just can't get any video to the monitor. All else is well (POST check included). I don't know enough about the motherboard off hand to tell you any more specifics, but seeing as it's an HP computer I'm betting you fellas are right, it's probably not able to handle more then 256megs of ram (which would still keep him slightly bottlenecked as his processor is 1.1ghz). Thanks for the help so far, I'll try just the 256 stick tonight and report back! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.80.115 (talk) 18:59, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
yep, the motherboard can only hold 256 megs of RAM. HP for the win!

Thanks guys! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.80.115 (talk) 14:00, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

256MB ought to be enough for anybody. --LarryMac | Talk 20:41, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Calendar software (open source) for team work

My company needs an online calendar so all team members can know what others are doing or planning to do and make comments on each others calenders.

Is there a open source solution out there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.37 (talk) 12:47, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Yahoo and Google both offer online calendars. In Yahoo, you make a group and it has a calendar. In Google, you can make a group and use the online office tools to share and edit papers and such. Being a group means you can write messages to each other, share files, and do live online chat - as well as have a calendar. Of course, you'll want to make it a private group. -- kainaw™ 13:11, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
For open source, Mozilla has both Sunbird and Lightning, which fall under the umbrella Mozilla Calendar Project. There are some other programs listed in the List of open source software packages. --LarryMac | Talk 13:51, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How to disassemble the HTC Touch smart phone?

this question has been moved from the "professional advice" talk subpage --LarryMac | Talk 14:09, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm really curious about the structure inside the HTC Touch.

Can somebody tell me how to disassemble it?

Giving me the pictures with step-by-step instructions will be the most appreciated.

Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kkchiang (talk • contribs) 02:35, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Do the user manuals help: [1] ? StuRat 16:16, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pdacenter.ru%2Frazborka%2Frazbor_htc_touch%2F&langpair=ru%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8

[edit] Low Core Speed from T2080

I have a Toshiba Satellite U305 Notebook running Vista Home Premium. The processor is a Intel Pentium T2080 Dual-Core @ 1.73GHz, yet in CPU-Z my processor's core speed reads off around 798 MHz which seems extremely low. I've been very unsatisfied with this computers performance in comparison to my other desktops which I built myself. My others have an AMD X2 4600 & 3800 and both run drastically faster than this one even though they all have dual cores with the same amount of RAM (2GB of DDR2). On the notebook I've removed Aero and virtually all visual effects and still am getting poor performance. Is this a problem with the cpu or, what I believe, are there cooling issues that are forcing the cpu to reduce its throughput due to high temperatures? Maybe I'm missing something all together, but I've used older laptops with far less impressive hardware that outperform this computer and am just wondering if any of you guys have any idea what the problem may be.

Thanks in advance, Jon

Intel (and most other laptop) processors throttle speed when idling as to keep power usage down. If it ran at that clock speed all the time it'd have terrible performance. You could turn it off in the BIOS probably, but you'd get an hour of battery life. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:57, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
If that's true would plugging it into a mains adapter unthrottle it? Exxolon 22:03, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
No, because it's there for energy efficiency reasons. You can unthrottle it if both CPU are not idle, however. Also, before this internet was preventing me from posting, I had:
Looking at that specific notebook, I didn't see any reason that it wouldn't be performing as advertised. However, on the CPU-Z website, it does mention that if your cpu is idle, it will do half power mode and run at half speed, which is most likely what you're seeing. You can use the two cores while loading CPU-Z or you can try a benchmark that automatically does it. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:11, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, don't I look dumb. It was on a power saver mode even when it wasn't running on battery. In high performance mode its running at 1.73GHz now. Thanks for your help though guys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.76.66.117 (talk) 02:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
BTW, I've found that running Intel's Thermal Analysis Tool helps, as it has buttons for loading each core at a certain percentage. Not only is it good for temperature checking but load-testing as well. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 07:29, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Line breaks in markup

In MediaWiki markup, and HTML in general, what's the difference between <br> and <br />? When do I use which, and why? —Angr 20:12, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, <br /> is XHTML-compliant, and the other is not. It's a shortcut for <br></br> since it doesn't make sense to have an opening tag without a closing tag in the XML realm --ffroth 20:36, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
Okay, I understand that <br /> is a shortcut for <br></br>, but is there ever a time when something would come between those tags? Is there any variable α that might occur in <br>α</br>? And Wikimedia projects need to be XHTML-compliant, right, so I should use <br /> here, at Wikisource, etc.? —Angr 20:48, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
LOL xhtml compliant. Well, that's what the doctype says though so I guess --ffroth 21:48, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
The reason lies in the history of HTML/XML. HTML was originally based on SGML which allowed certain tags with no closing tag (like br and img). Then, when HTML became popular, the W3C decided to generalize HTML into XML, so anybody could define an HTML-like language, on the same basis. In this scenario it makes sense to have a clear way to distinguish between single tags and tags which have and opening and closing variant. Without this, the parser would encounter <askjfg> and not know whether to expect a closing tag. With HTML, the parser knew which tags where single tags, but with XML the parser doesn't necessarily know anything about the tags. So single tags had to end in a slash. When XML was finished, the W3C decided to bring HTML under XML (which became XHTML), so all of HTML's single tags need to end with a slash if you're using XHTML. risk 00:32, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Baby computer OS

Add a cardboard box, and you're done toy shopping for life
Add a cardboard box, and you're done toy shopping for life
the last time laptop screens were glass
the last time laptop screens were glass

My 10-month old son wants to play with my new laptop. I gave him my old one, but it isn't as interesting because it doesn't do anything. I'd like to put a crippled OS on it that just shows pictures instead of doing anything useful. Any suggestions for how to do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.58.224.126 (talk) 21:07, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

You'd be better off getting something like "My First Laptop" - [2] - I wouldn't recommend giving a real laptop to a 10 month old baby to be honest. The screen is probably breakable glass, and I'd imagine the keys would present a choking hazard. Exxolon 21:53, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
A laptop with a glass screen? Are you still using a 1980s model? --ffroth 03:54, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
You don't think liquid crystal displays are made with glass??? 'Guess you've never broken one then.
Atlant 22:55, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
Yeah - kids aren't ready for screens (be they computers, TV's or anything else) until they are a couple of years old. Trust me, you aren't doing the kid any favors. Nice big blocks - LOTS of them, stuff that makes noises - things parents can do as well. Start thinking in terms of reading bedtime stories. SteveBaker 00:14, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
I agree with your idea to get the baby his own "laptop" to play with for when he wants to play with yours (otherwise you risk sticky keys on your laptop). However, as stated earlier, a real laptop just isn't appropriate for a baby. There are some very cheap toys designed to look like laptops that can be entertaining for kids. They will do things like say "press the red button when the bunny hops by"..."very good !". You can go to any toy store to find these. StuRat 16:11, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
The very last thing a baby should learn is to listen to machines. At least that explains the UI philosophy of windows.
Snicker. Is this some kind of paranoid reference to Skynet (fictional)? --ffroth 18:02, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

I have to agree. Don't give a real laptop to a baby. Give him a toy laptop instead. He won't even know, or care about, the difference. You can give him a real laptop when he's about four or five. JIP | Talk 21:15, 29 October 2007 (UTC)